Possibly a silly thing to worry about...

We are planning on TTC fairly soon but my partner has now got me worried. He mentioned to me yesterday that he thinks he might have problems with his sperm. The main reason why he thinks this is because he and his ex tried to have a baby for several years with no luck I knew they had been trying but I didn't realise how long they went without getting pregnant. I know it could very well be her but he also has another reason to think it might be him...

Apparently his youngest brother found out recently that he has basically no sperm So if these things are genetic it could be possible that he has the same problem...

I know its silly to worry about it now because we still have just over a month before we start TTC but I can't get the thought out of my head I know we can always use a donor if there is something wrong with his sperm but it wouldn't be the same

Does anyone know if male infertility is genetic? He is one of 7 children so we can assume his dad is fine lol but out of 5 brothers only one has kids and I can't help thinking they might all have the same problem...

From my very limited knowledge there does, at times, appear to be some genetic link or, at least, coincidence. We do ivf for male factor - dh is the youngest of four and his brother also needed to conceive via ivf. His two other brothers appear to look at their wives and end up pregnant. If he is at all worried its very easy to go to your gp and ask for a semen test. You just take a sample and need to have it to the lab within an hour. From memory it can be a few hundred dollars depending on what laboratory is used for the analysis. You need to abstain for, I think, at least 48-72 hours.

If it does come back that there is a problem there is still hope - it just might mean more time and expense! My dh does acupuncture, herbs and a million tablets (things like cq10, zinc, a multi vitamin, fish oil, folate....) plus no caffeine or alcohol. We also find he gets better results if he is eating clean and working out. Our fs says that all you need is a sperm with DNA in it - it doesn't necessarily need to be a swimmer because they are interested in the DNA material only and using the I is method they inject the sperm into the egg anyway.

There is hope so don't worry unnecessarily. The sperm analysis can be daunting to do but better to know than not. If you do do the test and the result is a bit down also have a repeat test. Sperm take 3 months to generate and the results of an analysis can differ week to week depending on what is going on (with one ivf cycle we had no sperm and we later figure out that three months earlier dh had had the flu really badly and had high temperatures which affects the sperm).

Good luck to you on your ttc journey. I hope it's a short uncomplicated one!

The journal meets photo album meets scrapbook for the digital age. Capture and save stories and precious moments of your life, with words, pictures, to privately share with family, close friends and generations to come.